


Bacon and Mushrooms

by amyfortuna



Series: Silmread Ficlets [5]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Bacon, Cooking, Gen, Hobbit Food, Mushrooms, Recipes, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 20:11:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9674264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/pseuds/amyfortuna
Summary: Primrose Maggot cooks the famous dish of bacon and mushrooms that Frodo enjoys so much.





	

"Let me cook the bacon and mushrooms tonight, Ma," Primrose Maggot said, pulling the long side of bacon out from the cold storage pantry and beginning to slice it up. Her curly hair, though it was tied back securely, kept slipping out from its band and falling into her face. 

Mrs Maggot turned from where she was kneading the bread for supper, just before its final rise. "Very well, Rose, but mind you don't burn the mushrooms! Your Da would carry on so. Mind that time some of the mushrooms stuck to the pot?"

"Don't worry, Ma," Primrose said, blowing a lock of hair away from her face again. "I'll use enough butter this time." She chopped several thick slices of bacon from the larger gammon, then chopped those slices into small pieces and set them aside in a bowl, ready for cooking. Mrs Maggot was just putting the bread into the oven when she finished. Primrose set aside the knife she had been using to cut meat, and the wooden board she had been cutting it on, ready to be washed, and went for a new knife and a new board. 

The mushrooms were the next order of business, and she went back to the cold storage to gather a vast bowl of them. They would shrink in the cooking, so a huge quantity would be needed to satisfy fourteen. For the next half-hour, she chopped mushrooms in half or thirds, depending on how big they were, and put them in another bowl next to the bacon. 

Then she quickly chopped an onion and a few cloves of garlic, and put a large iron pot on the stove, lighting the charcoal underneath it, and then placed a generous amount of butter into the pot. She could smell the bread baking in the oven, nearly ready to come out. Dinner wouldn't be long. Her mother was bustling about, assembling a plate of cheeses, sweet biscuits and fruits for afters, plating up the roast chicken that had been resting on the back of the stove, putting together a large bowl of roasted potatoes, another of steamed corn on the cob, yet another of roasted carrots and parsnips, and filling pitchers with cold water and beer. 

Primrose's little sister, Holly, came in from where she'd been setting the table. "Da's ready for supper, Ma," she said. "And those three guests are staying for a bite too. Da's going to drive them down to the ferry afterward."

"Did I hear right that one of them was young Mister Frodo Baggins?" Mrs Maggot said, taking the bread out of the oven, and Holly nodded. Primrose ladled the chopped onion and garlic into the hot pot with the butter, stirring them together until they were sending up a fine smell. Mrs Maggot laughed. "I remember when young Frodo was the worst mischief-maker this side of the River, always thieving your Da's mushrooms. They were fine mushrooms, it's true, but there was a couple of years the harvest was a mite poorer than it should've been 'cause of him."

"Well, he's grown up very polite and all," Holly said. Primrose put the chopped bacon into the pot and after a moment, followed them up with the large bowl of mushrooms. 

The iron pot clattered on the stove as she did it, and Mrs Maggot turned toward the sound. "Rose, that's a lot of mushrooms!" she said. 

"I can eat a lot of them," Primrose said with a grin. 

"Aye, no doubt," Mrs Maggot said. "Here, why don't we give some of this dish to Mr Baggins to take away with him, just to show no hard feelings?" 

Primrose smiled. "Very well, if we have any left after that mob go at them!" She nodded towards the dining room, where several hungry people could already be seen, one of them the famed Mr Baggins himself. He looked young yet, but careworn and worried, and Primrose didn't miss the way he fidgeted with something in his pocket and kept one ear cocked as though he was listening for something all the time. 

The bacon and mushrooms cooked rapidly after that, the mushrooms shrinking down until they were little more than half their original sizes, and the bacon combining with the onion and garlic to send up a tantalising scent. It wasn't long before Farmer Maggot was calling everyone in to dinner, Mrs Maggot and Holly were taking plate after plate of delicious food into the dining room, and Primrose was dishing up her bacon and mushrooms, done to a turn and not a one burnt. 

The serving dish she had wouldn't hold all the contents of the pot, so she ladled the rest into another serving dish, and set a lid on it. It would stay warm on the back of the stove, and then it could be wrapped up and put in a basket for Frodo. 

Lifting up and carrying the huge dish of bacon and mushrooms, she entered the dining room to general applause.


End file.
